


Stay

by NotHermione



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s03e18-21 Sozin's Comet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-17 23:30:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15472509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotHermione/pseuds/NotHermione
Summary: Toph and Sokka talk about what happened on the airship.





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a longer Tokka oneshot when I first watched Avatar back in 2012 but never posted it anywhere. Now I'm older and gayer and this is the only part I still think is sort of okay, but I want to post it for my 14 year old self. I haven't edited in any way other than basic formatting for AO3. I just took this section in its entirety and posted it in all of its cheesy, written-by-a-young-teen glory.

Toph officially hated Zuko's palace. At first the whole place was okay- kind of like her parents' house, but with more freedom. Unlike most houses in the Fire Nation, the floors weren't wood, so she had no trouble getting around.

The problem was that the beds were very large and high off the ground.

At first, this didn't seem like a big deal. Toph had no problem getting in the beds, and they were plenty comfortable, but maybe the final battle had affected her more than she cared to admit. It had been a week since Aang had defeated Ozai, but she was still suffering from nightmares where she felt nothing but her best friend's hand, which was slowly slipping away.

Tonight was the worst night by far. Tonight, Sokka finally lost his grip, and Toph found herself falling into nothing. She actually woke up when she couldn't feel him anymore, but she fell off the stupid bed, and managed to let loose a scream before she hit the floor and figured out what was going on.

The blind girl decided she didn't really want to get back in the bed, and that she would just sleep on the floor for the rest of the night. As she lay there, she did not cry. Her eyes just tended to water for a bit after she woke up.

She'd only been laying there for a few seconds, her loose hair splayed around her, when she felt someone practically running down the hall, albeit a bit stiffly.

"Toph?" Of course Sokka was there, he and the rest of her friends had rooms right by hers.

"Toph, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, not sounding nearly as 'okay' as she really was.

"Can I come in?" the Water Tribe boy immediately blurted out. His heart was beating wildly, and his muscles were tense.

"Yeah," Toph said again, pushing herself up into a sitting position. Sokka slowly opened the door and limped into her room. He still felt tense, like he was expecting an attack at any moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked, closing the door behind him. She didn't respond, and he continued. "I heard you- what are you doing on the floor?"

"I got sick of the bed. What did you hear?" she asked, feigning curiosity.

"I heard you scream, then something fell," he said. Sokka was probably smart enough to have pieced together what happened by now, but Toph wasn't going to admit to anything.

Suddenly, Sokka was on the floor next to her. "Have you been crying?"

"No!" she answered, too loud and too quickly. Sokka nodded and sat still. Toph took that time to make sure that the others were still in bed.

Finally, Sokka spoke. "So... you're fine." Toph resisted the urge to smack him. "And I guess I imagined all that noise, right?" Now he was just being a jerk. Toph tried to come up with a suitably snarky response, but he cut in before she got the chance. "What was it?"

"What?" the earthbender asked intelligently.

"You had a nightmare, right?" he asked gently, bringing Toph back to their talk on that cliff. "It's okay," he said when she didn't respond. "You're not the only one."

Toph unclenched her jaw, although she hadn't realized she'd been clenching it in the first place. 'Sokka won't snitch,' she thought. "I keep having dreams about when we were on the airships. It's no big deal."

"Yeah, that was... probably the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. I've been having that one a lot." Sokka absentmindedly played with his hands while Toph considered what he'd just said. That was the only dream she had. She had it easy. That was just another reason for her to get over it and make herself 'okay' again.

"What would you have done if you couldn't hang on to me long enough?" She felt his heart rate spike, then his only movement was that of his heart and breathing.

"I guess I would've jumped." Now it was Toph's turn to be surprised.

"But you could've escaped if I wasn't there."

Sokka had the audacity to laugh. "Maybe, but it would've been hard. My leg was broken and I didn't have any weapons, remember?"

She frowned. "So you would've just given up because it wasn't easy?"

"Under normal circumstances, no, I would've tried to get out," he said, "but seeing as my chances of survival were minimal anyway, I would rather go down with my best friend. What kind of friend would I be if I just let you die alone where you couldn't even see?"

"Really?" Her heart felt like it was going to explode. ('He's not lying, he means it, he means it!')

She knew he'd die for her. He'd die for anyone in their group, and so would she, but to die with her…

"Of course," he said, sweeping a lock of her hair behind her shoulder.

"That's really, really stupid," Toph could practically feel his disappointment, "but I think I would do that for you, too."

"Great! We're both idiots, then," Sokka said. Toph nodded. She was definitely an idiot.

They sat in silence for a while after that, just enjoying each others' company. Sokka yawned, and Toph realized how tired she actually was, yawning as well.

"Guess it's time for bed," Sokka said, although he didn't move.

"Could you stay?" Toph asked abruptly. Then, of course, she mentally cursed herself for sounding so desperate.

She felt Sokka looking at her. "For the night?"

'Forever,' she thought, but she just nodded. "It might help keep your nightmares away, right? I'll be sleeping on the floor, anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem."

"Yeah, sure," Sokka said, sliding across the floor to the bed and using it to pull himself into a standing position. "I don't feel like walking back to my room, anyway." To Toph's surprise, he didn't get in the bed, but instead grabbed a pillow and blanket, then walked back to where she was sitting. She felt the pillow land on the floor behind her, and the blanket fell over her head. Sokka laughed, and she couldn't help but smile as well.

He settled back down where he'd been sitting, pulled the pillow and blanket over to himself, and lay down. Sokka lifted the blanket with one arm, and Toph took his invitation to scoot under the cover with him. She settled her head just below the pillow, and he let the blanket fall over her body. They weren't touching in any way, but Toph's head was close enough to his chest that she swore she could hear his heart beating steadily as well as she could feel it.

(Katara found them in the morning when they didn't show up to breakfast. She decided that she would leave them alone for a few more hours.)   
  



End file.
